Colorado State football on the cusp of bowl bid

Rams know a bowl is in sight if they finish

By Mike Brohard Sports Editor

Posted:
11/10/2013 04:10:46 PM MST

Colorado State quarterback Garrett Grayson, right, hands the ball off to running back Kapri Bibbs against Nevada on Saturday. The Rams are only two wins away from bowl eligibility with three games to play.
(
Steve Stoner
)

FORT COLLINS - The goal is so close, the team can almost anticipate it, but Weston Richburg is not ready to pack his bags.

Not yet. The Colorado State senior has been there, not done that.

"That was a problem a couple of years ago," the Rams' center said after Saturday's 38-17 win over Nevada. "We started off the season 3-0 and then everybody was thinking we have three games until we make a bowl game, and those three games never came. We're going to keep stressing. We're going to try to win the next three games, and that's the most important thing right now."

The year was 2009. The Rams had won the New Mexico Bowl the season before, Steve Fairchild's first as coach. There was a feeling things were turning around with the program, and they did.

In a negative way.

The season ended with nine straight losses, and 2010 opened with three more, extending the skid to 12 games. In 2011, the Rams were 3-1, then lost eight straight. Fairchild was shown the door, and the Jim McElwain era began.

Whatever perception had been there before, the reality was different. The same can't be said now. With three games remaining on the schedule, two against teams with losing records, reaching the postseason is a legitimate proposition for the Rams.

Much like the second half played out Saturday, when Kapri Bibbs rushed for 260 of his school-record 312 yards, a corner is there to be turned.

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"You know what I've been waiting for," asked McElwain on Saturday. "I've been waiting for us to cross the line. Rather than having to plead with them and beg them, there comes a point in each guy that says, 'let's just do it without making excuses.' I think today's second half had some of that."

The Rams turned a sluggish 7-6 halftime deficit into an impressive display on both sides of the ball. Much to the same degree, playing in a bowl would display a take-charge approach.

Not just for the team, but the program as a whole.

"It's real important for our whole organization, because it's been since (2008), so that's a long time," senior linebacker Shaquil Barrett said. "I just know it's important for Jack Graham, Coach Mac, because they came in to change it from when they came in to a Bold New Era. It's just showing that it's finally here, and that we're for real. Going to a bowl game is just a huge step we need to take to become a better organization."

To the team, it seems like it's almost here. But it's also a program that has seen it fade away before, so the goal is to make sure it happens, not count on it happening.

"It's really exciting," quarterback Garrett Grayson said of the possibility. "Obviously we haven't been here in some time, but we need to keep ourselves calm and we can't get too far ahead of ourselves and think people are just going to hand the wins to us. We've obviously got to expect people to battle."

Richburg would actually like a little more than that. Instead of leaving it to chance, he'd rather head to a bowl game with a streak going and confidence building.

"We want to go three for three, so we want to win every game," he said. "We've got a big one next week in New Mexico. We're going to start preparing and get ready for that one, because I feel it's going to be the same type of game."